Topanga Canyon Due for Another Case of the Blues : Music: Floyd Dixon enlists a few compatriots to preserve a young tradition at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum.

By DAVID WHARTON

May 31, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Back in the 1940s, Floyd Dixon was playing the circuit with Big Joe Turner. They were playing in warehouses and barns--the kind of places that resonate with the blues.

Now, decades later, Dixon has put together an old-time concert that he hopes will preserve a relatively young blues tradition in the airy spaces of Topanga Canyon.

The local musician decided to stage his all-day jam after a group called the Southern California Blues Society announced it was withdrawing its annual summer concert from the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum. Dixon and his manager quickly rounded up such veterans as Lowell Fulson and Joe Houston to share a Saturday bill at the outdoor theater.

“We’re continuing the tradition,” said Kathleen Barlow, the manager who is taking her first crack at promoting for this “Rhythm and Brews” festival.

Dixon is known for his upbeat Jump Blues piano and about 400 tunes, including the classic blues chestnut “Hey Bartender.” These days, with a reputation built from decades, he has trouble finding suitable stages among the relatively few and small blues clubs in Southern California.

“There is such a wealth of fine musicians in the area, all vying for the same venues,” Barlow said. “It gets more difficult all the time.”

Thus the festival. Dixon said he likes the big bill, and the setting, because they might draw a varied group of listeners.

“You have a young audience that has never heard you and gets in there and they see that the blues are a soulful-feeling thing,” Dixon said. “They start liking the blues.

“It makes a musician not want to give up.”

The blues society had held its annual concert at Theatricum Botanicum for the last eight years and had attracted crowds as large as 1,000 to see the likes of Turner and Junior Wells. The society pulled out of Topanga Canyon when the theater increased its rental price.

This year’s event won’t suffer, though. Houston is a Texas-born tenor saxophonist who also played extensively with Turner. Fulson, born on an Oklahoma reservation, played with Ray Charles. The Houston Chronicle called him “an under-appreciated titan of the blues and R & B tradition lauded by historians but unknown to much of the general blues audience.”

Also appearing will be pianist Jimmy Beasley, singer Mickey Champion and Steve Samuels, a one-handed guitarist who plays a right-handed guitar upside down.

“Everybody’s talking about him because he’s so terrific,” Dixon said.

The outdoor program will take place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The “Brews” part of the event refers to vendors who will sell beer from three California breweries: Anchor, Belmont and Sierra Nevada. Tex-Mex food will also be sold.

The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum is at 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga Canyon. Admission for “Rhythm and Brews” on Saturday is $20, $5 for children 6 to 12 and free for children under 5. “Onstage seating” is available for $50, with proceeds going to the Blues Heaven Foundation. Information: (213) 455-2322.